2025 Compare Cities Rankings:
Rochester, NY vs Santa Monica, CA

#2 Most Secure Places to Live 2011 (Large Metros)

#6 Most Secure Places to Live in the U.S. (Mid-Size Metro Areas)

#6 The Best Cities for Thanksgiving

#6 Most Secure Places to Live in the U.S. (Large Metro Areas)

#6 America's Top Hygge Cities

#7 Most Affordable Colleges

#7 Most Competitive Public Colleges

#8 Most Romantic Cities for Boomers

#9 Top 10 Cities to Beat the Heat

#18 Best Cities for Teleworking - Medium Metro Areas

#19 America's Best and Worst Cities for Crime (Large Metro Areas)

#25 2005 High Gas Prices

#25 Most Popular Cities for the Holidays

#27 Hypertension Hot Spots

#35 America’s Manliest Sports Cities

#36 America’s Manliest Cities

#37 Best Cities for Board Gamers

#37 America’s Least Manly Cities

#39 Most Energetic Cities

#40 Second Annual “America’s Manliest Cities” Rankings

#41 Most and Least Risky Places for Identity Theft

#43 Cities on the Edge of Greatness

#45 The Most Single Cities

#46 Americas Manliest Cites 2011

#48 America's Migraine Hot Spots

#48 The Most (and Least) Gender Imbalanced Cities

#50 Most Irritation Prone Cities

#54 Drought-Riskiest Cities

#62 America’s Best (and Worst) Cities for Dating

#65 High Gas Prices - Which Cities are Hit the Hardest?

#89 America's Most (and Least) Stressful Cities (100 Largest Metro Areas)

#93 Best Green Cities

#214 2005 Best Places to Live

#2 Most Comfortable Summer Cities

#2 Top 10 Cities to Beat the Heat

#43 Best Cities for Board Gamers

#47 Gloomiest Places in America

#50 America's Top Hygge Cities

Stay out of the rougher patches, and you'll find a pretty solid city. I live within close proximity to it, and the crime from it DOES rub off on us (auto theft), but  More

Rochester isn't perfect (I'll detail pros and cons), but it's certainly perfect for me and my husband. We've lived here for 4 years and are getting ready to purchase our  More

Rochester is a scenic city with so much to offer in terms of things to do and having 4 seasons, except the summer is more like a long spring!! It's a relatively unknown  More

I moved here to Santa Monica over 10 years ago from Oklahoma City. I was surprised to see that Oklahoma City was ranked higher than Santa Monica on best places. I  More

I've lived in Santa Monica for over 30 years. It's a Mediterranean climate--sunny and temperate when the rest of the country is under snow! I am walking distance to  More

I have lived in this city for 4 decades, and it is never been worse than it is now. It is a dangerous disgusting hell hole. Between the crime, the homeless that are not  More